May 14, 2007

Uh Oh

Yeah, this is bad...

Edit: Why? Because you do not openly question the loyalty of the Deputy Leader to the press...period. It just is not a smart thing to do. Carroll made a mistake. He should apologize at the minimum. Dion will make his own decisions how to run his office. Also, can the people that work there not have the fuckin press on speed dial every time something goes wrong? We are becoming like the PQ...

Ignatieff and Dion squabble over Liberal honchoJOAN BRYDEN

Ottawa — Stéphane Dion is resisting pressure to fire the Liberal Party's national director who suggested that former leadership rivals may be plotting against the new boss.Deputy Leader Michael Ignatieff told Mr. Dion over the weekend that Jamie Carroll should be fired, sources say.

While he did not demand Mr. Carroll's head or issue any ultimatums on the matter, they say Mr. Ignatieff argued that Mr. Carroll can't remain ostensibly in charge of rebuilding and unifying the party after publicly casting aspersions on the loyalty of erstwhile leadership competitors.“He was forceful that it was his view that (Mr. Carroll) should go,” said one well-placed insider.Although displeased with Mr. Carroll's public musings, sources say Mr. Dion indicated that he would not fire his hand-picked choice for the party's top administrative post.

Mr. Ignatieff, who was overtaken by Mr. Dion on the final ballot at last December's leadership convention, was incensed by comments from Carroll in a new book released Saturday.

In Against the Current, author Linda Diebel writes that two months ago Mr. Carroll began to doubt the wisdom of Mr. Dion giving key roles to all his former rivals — including his choice to make Mr. Ignatieff deputy leader.

“I am starting to wonder if he may not have been a little too good to his former competitors,” Mr. Carroll is quoted as saying.

Ms. Diebel writes that Mr. Carroll “lived in fear of an all-out drive against Dion,” orchestrated by one or more of Mr. Dion's top three leadership rivals — Mr. Ignatieff, Bob Rae and Gerard Kennedy.

“What they do in public doesn't bother me. It's the shit they do behind the scenes — which I may not know they're doing — that keeps me up at night,” Mr. Carroll is quoted as saying.Senior organizers for each of the former contenders were privately furious about the remarks, particularly those in the Ignatieff camp on whom Mr. Carroll's suspicions seemed primarily focused.

Mr. Ignatieff acknowledged Monday that he'd spoken to Mr. Dion about the matter.“I've made my views very clear to the leader and I think he's communicated that to Mr. Carroll, as far as I know,” he said.

Still, Mr. Ignatieff attempted to down play the controversy, declaring: “Look, I get up in the morning, I show up, I prepare for QP (Question Period), I do my job. We've united the party. All this stuff is kind of tired rehash gossip from a leadership campaign that's over.”

“There is no clans and I will not accept that anybody from the party who's stating that there's some clans who are plotting right now because...it's not true,” Mr. Coderre said.He praised Mr. Ignatieff as “a model of dignity, a model of loyalty.”

Mr. Kennedy took a more conciliatory tone, saying that regardless of Mr. Carroll's attitude, he's found Mr. Dion and his leadership team to be mostly welcoming and open.

“I think it's natural for some of the folks that brought Mr. Dion the leadership to feel protective of him,” Mr. Kennedy said in an interview.

“But Mr. Dion himself and by and large his folks have been pretty open to me so that's the main frame of reference I have.”

Some of Mr. Kennedy's leadership supporters were actually more miffed about a weekend report suggesting that Mr. Dion had fired Mr. Kennedy as his special election readiness adviser. In fact, they said Mr. Kennedy quit six weeks ago when it became apparent there would not be an election this spring.

Privately, many senior Liberals were grumbling that Mr. Carroll's distrust of former rivals was reminiscent of the paranoid, bunker mentality that characterized both camps in the leadership civil war between Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin.

The ensuing internal strife ripped the Liberals apart.

Several noted snarkily that Mr. Carroll is supposed to work with all Liberals, including the 83 per cent who didn't vote for Mr. Dion on the first leadership ballot.

Mr. Carroll declined to comment, as did Mr. Rae. A spokesman for Mr. Dion similarly refused comment, other than to insist: “We're all working together as a team, as we've been doing since December.”

14 Commentaires:

Bad for who? MI? He looks like a petty power hungry rookie MP. Bob Rae? He came across as a bitter old man in Diebel's book. GK? I know you aren't writing anything good about him so maybe this is bad news for Gerard.

Dion? Lots of noise...all I know is if he had fired Jamie because poor little MIchael wanted him to, he'd be giving up his leadership...now? He's actually acting a bit like Chretien. Good for him. Jamie f*cked up, Dion is standing behind him and will deal with him on his own time-table. That sounds about right.

Why don't you make some predictions? Dion wont make it through the summer as leader? Coderre/Pablo/Michael will take over the world by July 1st (or in Michael's case, July 4th)? Make it good.

You are obviously right. I actually think MI was A OK today. I am just making the point that if Antonio is going to argue that this noise from a gossip-dieva like Diebal/Taber is "bad news", it has to be bad news for somebody. I don't think it's anything more than noise that doesn't really mean anything but look forward to Antonio explaining to us why this really matters.

i don't remember carroll (in the diebel article) explicitly questioning ignatieff's loyalty...rather, he was stating that he worried about other camps trying to subvert dion's leadership (like cerberus said). which is, i think, a sentiment shared by many, if not most, liberals. certainly not a statement that required coderre and the iggy posse to get their panties in a bundle and publicly respond...thus making themselves look like insubordinant fools.

did carroll make a mistake in stating that on the record to diebel??? i don't know...probably not the wisest course of action. should he apologize??? i'm not sure why he would apologize for worrying aloud about the intentions of other leadership rivals.

the only thing that is clear about this whole non-story is that coderre has demonstrated once again (is this the umpteenth time yet??) that he is a complete jackass who needs to be kept as far from a microphone as possible. what a buffoon! seems his only ability is to make o'connor look good in comparison...not good.

I won't shut it. The great thing about this country is that I am able to express my distaste for distasteful politicians. One of them happens to be Ignatieff.

You could see it in his body language and his tone when he said he supported Dion completely when he lost the nomination. It was hollow. He wants to be the big banana.

Why? It's a power thing. He's the type of academic who believes he knows best and feels that he is above everyone else.

Remember when he was interviewed on the street by This Hour has 22 minutes before the nomination? He jokes that his use of 6 syllable words would be difficult for the everyman to comprehend. Just totally out to lunch.

He is the new Paul Martin of the party. A mediocre politician biding his time, attempting to fulfill his lofty ambitions of being in charge of everything and everyone.

Where did Iggy say anything publicly. Seems to me that the article indicates he had a private conversation with the leader in which he expressed some concerns about Carroll's efforts at unity (he didn't ask for his resignation). Seems to me that somehow that was leaked to make Iggy look bad. Now who would have done that? Regardless, you can't claim that that is a public statement.

Also seems to me that this is not the first complaint we've all heard about the National Director. There is a bigger context here and some are clearly choosing to make it bigger.

The Dion people don't like Iggy or any of this supporters. That has been made abundently clear from the start. As loyal and helpful as he has been, as much as he tries to whip the caucus into a Dionista frenzy, as much as some other former candidates actually criticize Dion in public, it doesn't matter.

1. MI talked to Joan on the record. That's his right but don't claim he "said nothing" on the subject.

2. "The Dion people don't like Iggy or any of this supporters. That has been made abundently clear from the start" wow, those are strong words...not sure what to say. I mean, Brad Davis works for the leader in a senior role...would you claim that "The Dion people don't like" him? He was made Deputy Leader...why did they do that if they hate him so?

3. ", as much as some other former candidates actually criticize Dion in public, it doesn't matter. "

Let's call a spade a spade - you are referring to Rae who has been a bitter old man since Montreal, has been attacking Dion and Gerard at every opposrutnity. None of the other former candidates have been publicly criticising Dion at all. Rae's behaviour isn't a ghost - it is quite real. Oh, and then there's Coderre but that's a whole other story...